Poor Robin's Prophesies

A curious Almanac, and the everyday mathematics of Georgian England

Benjamin Wardhaugh

Tells the great story of mathematics through the popular Georgian character of Poor Robin and his Almanac

Highlights the human side of the history of mathematics, and its uses by ordinary people

Demonstrates the humour, satire, and popular exposition of science and mathematics in the eighteenth-century

Poor Robin's Prophesies

A curious Almanac, and the everyday mathematics of Georgian England

Benjamin Wardhaugh

Description

Author, astrologer, journalist, satirist, and 'well-willer to the mathematics', Poor Robin of Saffron Walden was a fantastic, yet invented, figure of British popular culture from the Restoration to the end of the Georgian period. Poor Robin's Almanac first appeared in 1662, developing an enthusiastic following and long outliving its original creator to last until 1828.

Benjamin Wardhaugh tells the great story of Georgian popular mathematics - through Poor Robin's remarkable life, from his humble beginnings as an almanac-writer through to best-selling stardom, controversy, and decline. Using the character, wit, and columns of Poor Robin, Wardhaugh explores the mathematics of ordinary people, from learning sums to using mathematics in weighing and
measuring, in business, agriculture, map-making, and navigation.

This is a history of mathematics that is rarely thought about -- creative, popular, and led by practical and social needs. It is centered on the ordinary people that used it. Their names remain little-known; their solutions have vanished along with the situations that required them; but their energy and ideas - as captured by Poor Robin - create a wonderfully rich picture of what mathematics can be, and has been.

Poor Robin's Prophesies

A curious Almanac, and the everyday mathematics of Georgian England

Benjamin Wardhaugh

Table of Contents

1. 'Doctor Faustus's Day': Making fun Almanac day - high-class astrology - Poor Robin and his authors - mathematics and its mockers2. 'The dismal and long expected morning': Getting it wrong The eclipse that never was - the South Sea Bubble - mathematics and its reputation - seamen's back-dated wages3. 'Fitted to the meanest capacity': Learning it Isaac Hatch's exercises - maths at school - a gift for a maid - Ann Mohun's book4. 'Beer, wine and malt': Using it Mathematics in your day - John Dougharty's barrel - maths and its instruments - Richard Shittler and his book5. 'Beautifying the mind': Geometry and its effects Thomas Porcher's beautiful pages - How Descartes can change your life - geometry unbound - making yourself mad6. 'A geometrical
creation': Ordering the world The gentlemen of Spaulding - Desaguliers and his lectures - reforming the calendar - sawing up an organ7. 'The number of sheep in Ireland': Getting it right Political arithmetic - facts, facts, facts - stacking the guineas - crossing the globe8. 'The terrible Pons asinorum': Playing with it Comedy in the classroom - It might be you - The Ladies' Diary - the obscenometer and the death of Poor Robin

Poor Robin's Prophesies

A curious Almanac, and the everyday mathematics of Georgian England

Benjamin Wardhaugh

Author Information

Benjamin Wardhaugh lives in Oxford. He trained in mathematics, music and history, and has taught both science to historians and history to mathematicians. He is a former Fellow of All Souls College; he now studies and writes about history, particularly its mathematical parts.

Poor Robin's Prophesies

A curious Almanac, and the everyday mathematics of Georgian England

Benjamin Wardhaugh

From Our Blog

By Benjamin Wardhaugh
As well as Halloween, Guy Fawkes, and All Saints's day, this time of the year used to see another day of fun and frenzy. 'Almanack Day', towards the end of November, saw the next year's almanacs go on sale. It generally came round on or about 22 November: St Cecilia's Day. In London, Stationers' Hall would be crammed to the rafters...